Page 23 of Burning Hearts

Probably not for Tristan.

Logan said, “It’s probably for the best if you just go back to Last Chance County.”

SIX

An hour later,there was enough signal on the cell phone stuffed in Jamie’s duffel that Logan was able to use it to contact base camp. Next time he went out, he was bringing his cell phone with him.

The phone rang against his ear and finally connected. “Midnight Sun base camp. This is Commander Newman.”

Logan had called all the way through to the commander’s desk phone. No point going up the chain when he could go straight to the source. “It’s Logan Crawford.”

“Good to hear from you. Jade called in a little while back pretty worried about where you were.”

Logan winced, one hand on the wheel and the other holding the phone to his ear. “I’m good. I’m driving Jamie back to town.”

“Bring her back to base camp.”

Despite being commander, Tucker Newman didn’t normally bark out orders like that. Logan didn’t like the sound of it. “Um, sir?”

“You heard me. Get that girl back to base camp. The rest of your team will be in tonight, so there’s no point catching up with them just to turn around and come back to base.”

“They got the fire under control?” Jade had told him they were going to check out another one.

“A team from up north came down and took care of part of it. I sent one of the drivers out with the bus to pick them up.”

“Copy that, Commander.”

Tucker hung up. Logan handed the phone back to Jamie. “Thanks.”

“Everything okay?”

She hadn’t said much to him since he’d made that comment about her going back to Last Chance County. He didn’t know why, considering that was where she lived. It was where she’d come from. Her brother had proven he could land on his own two feet and would continue to take care of himself. The guy had always been scrappy and street smart. That wouldn’t change just because Tristan was up in Alaska, elbow-deep in whatever those backwoods guys were up to.

“Sure. Everything’s fine.” Logan headed in the general direction of where Tucker had ordered him to go. “Can you type an address into the GPS? We’re headed back to base camp.”

“Where all the hotshots and smokejumpers live?”

Logan nodded. “It’s pretty remote, but that’s not surprising up here.”

He gave her the information, and she got her phone going, plugged into the charger. “I downloaded a lot of the maps of the area while I had signal, just in case I hit a spot with no service.”

“Smart.” The car, connected to her phone, beeped with a couple of notifications. Incoming emails the car wanted to read aloud to her.

Jamie dismissed the notifications.

Logan glanced over. “Work stuff?” When they got back to base camp, she would be able to check in with her company. They had surprisingly good internet.

“Probably just worried about me and looking for an update on Tristan.”

“You told the people you work with about your brother?”

She shrugged. “And my mom and how she’s doing well right now. She’s in this rehab place I found just outside Benson, in Washington. They care about my family.”

“That’s great.” He didn’t want his voice to sound tight, as if he were begrudging them success. Her mom had struggled with addiction to both drugs and alcohol for years. If she was doing better and working to fight back, that wasn’t a bad thing.

One of the guys on the hotshot team in Montana had been a SWAT officer in Benson. He had overcome a pain-pill addiction, and faith had strengthened him in the fight for recovery. Logan hadn’t known the guy before he got clean, found Jesus, and decided to be a wildland firefighter. He couldn’t even imagine who Dakota had been before.

One day, someone would be able to say the same thing about Jamie’s mom. That in knowing who she had become, they couldn’t even imagine who she had been before.

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